Learning by Leadership: An Intervention for the Youngest Students

Maria Montessori, the famed physician and child educator, once

said, “Children suffer not from too much work, but from work that is

unworthy of them.” Her efforts at the turn of the last century focused on

working with children that were deemed “uneducable.” Dr. Montessori was able to help children pass the same exams that so-called “normal” children passed. Her

methodologies and theories were founded on the notion that children

develop best when using with their “natural human tendencies— to explore, move, share with a group, to be independent and make decisions, create order, develop

self-control, abstract ideas from experience, use the creative imagination, work hard, repeat, concentrate, and perfect one's efforts.” (Montessori Teaching, n.d.)

How might today’s school children develop these natural tendencies? Leadership! This article seeks to provide a short primer on research in the area of student leadership,

identify how leadership can impact student learning, and provide examples of leadership opportunities that can be used to foster leadership in children.

Leadership development is particularly needed for children struggling in poverty, abuse/neglect situations, or with learning disabilities who frequently are not provided with

the same opportunities that their more advantaged counterparts are. Schools, of course, have developed ways for students to develop these skills but often limit them to children

who are not struggling academically, on the assumption that without an academic foundation, they could not succeed anyway. Instead, schools provide at-risk youth with double and triple doses of the very academic subjects they’re failing, such as double blocks of language arts. Unfortunately, these efforts present students even more frustration and even less sense of control. They isolate them from their academically successful peers. More importantly, feelings of frustration and isolation appear early, even in the elementary

school years and are amplified when children arrive at the middle school where school performance plummets. So, it is critical that we intervene early, and provide at-risk

youth with opportunities to help them feel successful before they reach middle school. Specifically, we must help young elementary school children develop self-efficacy and a

purpose for learning. How can this be accomplished? Student leadership.

Providing all students, but especially those from at-risk backgrounds, with leadership opportunities is an effective way to increase their motivation and academic success.

While there is very limited research in the area of leadership for young students, there is a great deal of research that shows how beneficial leadership opportunities are to

college age students. Are leadership opportunities only beneficial to the mind of a 19 year old or can it be beneficial to the 9 year old?

Examining the leadership research common in collegiate circles, we find that the following skills can be developed: organizing, planning, delegating, balancing academic,

personal and professional roles, motivating others, problem solving, decision making, communication, self-confidence, working with others, including those different from

ourselves, and giving and receiving feedback (Hall, et. Al., 2008; Benigni, M. D., 2006). Other sources claim that student leaders gain self- confidence, counseling skills, and

personal development from leadership opportunities (Leney, 2008).

As mentioned earlier, there are only a few studies that focus on leadership in the early years; however, those that do exist make similar claims to the collegiate studies. One of these studies focused on leadership in the middle school. Authors found that “opposed

to the traditional ‘learning for testing’ that occurs in many at-risk classrooms,” leadership

opportunities presented in a non-threatening environment “present a greater avenue for at-risk students to receive the same opportunities for learning experiences as gifted students” (Gonsoulin, et. al., 2006). Another study (Bonner, et. al., 2007), posits

that “leadership potential can be cultivated as early as elementary school.” More interesting, the authors point out that some African-American leadership programs, such

as rites of passage programming, purposefully avoid labeling students as at-risk, gifted or ‘normal.’ The exclusion of such labels is based on the idea that everyone benefits from

leadership opportunities. In addition to the research specifically focused on leadership,

evidence exists that placing students in leadership roles can have significant impact in their lives. For example, role theory postulates that human beings are social creatures,

seeking position in their groups, and that human beings will perform according to their role in the group. Give someone a trivial or passive role and they will see themselves as

inconsequential and become an inactive member of the group. Give that same person a leadership role and they become more active and involved in the group culture.

Other research that points to the benefits of student leadership comes from the field of character education. There are two main elements to character education: moral character

and performance character. Moral character development focuses on helping students develop a foundation of ethics in decision making; performance character focuses on helping students develop a work ethic of excellence whether in scholarship, sports or in their personal life. Students “who develop their talent to a high level show

superior levels of performance-character qualities, such as goal-setting and time management, compared with equally gifted peers who do not” (Csikszentmihalyi, et al,

1997).

Furthermore, character education research addresses how the development of character connects to academics, a natural link to the usefulness of leadership programming in schools. Conceptualizing character to include both performance character and moral character enables us to more effectively address the question, “What’s the connection between character and academics?” In this new paradigm, character is integral to academic instruction, since it is needed for, and potentially developed from, every academic activity...(Smart and Good Schools, 2007). The literature, both the collegiate and the limited youth research, points to important features that should be included in leadership development in order to increase learning. These features include authentic experiences, opportunities

for reflection (Bonner, et. al. 2007; Hall, et. al., 2008), and that “children have to see the impact their work is having in order to benefit” (Leney, 2008). Furthermore, Leney suggests

that programs should be backed up with leadership training for teachers, who must value student leaders and student voice.

This article was originally published in the National At-risk Education Network Journal in the Spring of 2009.